The Hurricane Heist
The Hurricane Heist is a 2018 American heist action film directed by Rob Cohen and written by Jeff Dixon and Scott Windhauser. The film stars Toby Kebbell, Maggie Grace, Ryan Kwanten, Melissa Bolona and Ralph Ineson, who follows a band of thieves who plan to use a Category 5 hurricane to cover their tracks of a bank robbery. The film was released on March 9, 2018, received negative reviews and was a box office bomb, making just $15 million against its estimated $35 million budget. Plot In 1992 Alabama, Will and Breeze Rutledge are evacuating from the destructive Category 5 Hurricane Andrew with their dad. However, their car gets stuck after avoiding a toppling tree in front of them and they are forced to take refuge in a nearby house. While trying to save the car from blowing away, the strong wind blows the water tank away and it crushes their dad, killing him. In present day, another destructive hurricane named Tammy approaches the town in Alabama. Treasury agent Casey Corbyn is ordered by fellow employee Randy to summon Breeze, who now works as a handyman, and whose brother Will is a meteorologist, to fix the generator. While she is out from the facility, rogue Treasury agents, led by Connor Perkins, infiltrate the facility and hold Moreno hostage. Their plan is to rob $600 million and Perkins enlists the computer hackers, Sasha and Frears, to crack the code of the vault. However, when it fails to decrypt it, Perkins realizes that Corbyn might have changed it so he has his men find her. Sasha and Frears have to use a brute-force attack using the town's transmission tower. As Corbyn and Breeze drives back to the facility, they encounter the mercenaries and Corbyn engages in a shootout with them. Will appears and helps her escape with his Dominator, but Breeze is left behind and is captured. He successfully repairs the generator and is taken hostage. Will is upset when he learns that his brother is in danger. Determined to save him, the two meet Sheriff Jimmy Dixon at his station, but he reveals himself to be one of Perkins' cohorts and they escape. When Dixon and another cohort chase them, Will manages to knock their car with his Dominator. Realizing that the tower is used to crack the vault's code, Will and Corbyn manage to topple it down moments before the decryption process is complete. However, Perkins' men — who extracted Dixon from the wreck — spots them and engages in a gunfight with them, but they escape. Dixon turns Perkins down, confronting him over a botched heist in the previous hurricane. When Dixon wants to claim all the money Perkins shoots him dead and persuades Dixon's men to find Corbyn. While looting a mall, Corbyn calls Perkins and makes a deal for the release of Moreno and Breeze as long as she opens the vault and gets the money. The mercenaries arrive at the mall with Breeze to get her, but Corbyn shoots the glass roof, sucking the mercenaries out. Corbyn, Will, and Breeze manage to hold on. After the storm surge, Corbyn is captured while Breeze rescues the stranded Will. Back at the Treasury, Corbyn is able to crack the code, but Perkins breaks his deal to release Moreno. Avenging the deaths of his men Jaqi and Xander, Perkins kills Moreno. As the eye of the storm passes, they depart using facility's trucks with Corbyn aboard, with one of the trucks full of money. Will and Breeze follow them and jump aboard. With the eye-wall approaching their tail, Will and Breeze take over the truck and Frears and Perkins are injured in the process. After the struggle with Perkins, the eye-wall swallows all of the money. Perkins is killed after the detached trailer crushes him. When Breeze's truck engine backfires, Will and Corbyn transfer him to their truck, but before they can rescue Sasha and Frears they are sucked into the storm. They manage to outrun the storm safely and the sunshine appears in front of them. Cast * Toby Kebbell as Will Rutledge, the meteorologist ** Leonardo Dickens and Luke Judy as Young Will Rutledge * Maggie Grace as Casey Corbyn, the Treasury agent * Ryan Kwanten as Breeze Rutledge, Will's older, ex-Marine brother ** Patrick McAuley and Andre Robinson as Young Breeze Rutledge * Ralph Ineson as Connor Perkins, a corrupt Treasury employee * Melissa Bolona as Sasha Van Dietrich, a computer hacker and Frears' girlfriend * Ben Cross as Sheriff Jimmy Dixon, a corrupt lawman * Jamie Andrew Cutler as Clement Rice, Xander's brother * Christian Contreras as Agent Randy Moreno, an employee of the Treasury * Jimmy Walker as Xander Rice, Clement’s brother * Ed Birch as Frears, another computer hacker and Sasha's boyfriend * Moyo Akande as Jaqi, Perkins' lover * James Barriscale as Deputy Michaels * Mark Basnight as Deputy Gabrielle * Keith D. Evans as Deputy Rothilsberg * Mark Rhino Smith as Deputy Baldwin * Brooke Johnston as Deputy Diamond Production In January 2016, it was announced that Rob Cohen had signed on to write and direct the film, then titled Category 5, with casting underway and a Summer 2016 principal production start set. In February 2016, it was announced that the film had been acquired for distribution in a large number of international locations via the European Film Market. In May 2016, it was revealed that Toby Kebbell had been set to star in the film. In June 2016, the rest of the cast was announced. Principal photography on the film began in Bulgaria on August 29, 2016. In July 2017, the completed film, now titled The Hurricane Heist, was acquired for domestic distribution by Entertainment Studios with an early 2018 release date slated. In the UK, the film will be released by Altitude Film Distribution and will be the second Sky Cinema Original Film. Reception Box office The Hurricane Heist has grossed $6.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $9.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total $15.6 million against a production budget of $35 million. In the United States and Canada, The Hurricane Heist was released on March 9, 2018 alongside The Strangers: Prey at Night, Gringo and A Wrinkle in Time, and was initially projected to gross around $7 million from 2,402 theaters in its opening weekend. However after making just $950,000 on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $3 million. It ended up grossing $3 million, finishing 9th. Critical response On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on 41 reviews, and an average rating of 4.8/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale. Alonso Duralde of TheWrap criticized the film's direction, acting and overbearing musical score, saying, "Critics often lament that worthy films released early in the year are too often forgotten during awards season, so let’s be very clear up front: For your Best of the Worst of 2018 consideration, in all categories, The Hurricane Heist." Andrew Barker, writing for Variety, gave the film an ironic recommendation, calling it the best-worst movie of 2018 and saying: "All three of our heroes take time out in the middle of survival situations to discuss their undying love of football and the Second Amendment, but they also believe in climate change. If our divided country can’t come together over a movie this wonderfully terrible, what hope do we really have?" External links *Official website *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5360952/ The Hurricane Heist] on IMDb Category:2018 films Category:2010s action films Category:2010s disaster films Category:American films Category:American disaster films Category:American heist films Category:English-language films Category:Films about natural disasters Category:Films directed by Rob Cohen Category:Films shot in Bulgaria Category:Film scores by Lorne Balfe Category:Film scores by Max Aruj Category:Film scores by Steffen Thum